text: Fluid dynamics can be described as all of the following:
  *An academic discipline – one with academic departments, curricula and degrees; national and international societies; and specialized journals.
  *A scientific field (a branch of science) – widely recognized category of specialized expertise within science, and typically embodies its own terminology and nomenclature. Such a field will usually be represented by one or more scientific journals, where peer-reviewed research is published.
  **A natural science – one that seeks to elucidate the rules that govern the natural world using empirical and scientific methods.
  ***A physical science – one that studies non-living systems.
  **** A branch of physics – study of matter, its fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force.
  ***** A branch of mechanics – area of mathematics and physics concerned with the relationships between force, matter, and motion among physical objects.
  ****** A branch of continuum mechanics – subject that models matter without using the information that it is made out of atoms; that is, it models matter from a macroscopic viewpoint rather than from microscopic.
  ******* A subdiscipline of fluid mechanics – branch of physics concerned with the mechanics of fluids (liquids, gases, and plasmas) and the forces on them. 
  ***A biological science – field that studies the role of physical processes in living organisms. For an example of a biological area involving fluid dynamics, see hemodynamics.